Foldable garment hanger



April 29, 1969 .1. CHATKIS FOLDABLE GARMENT HANGER Sheet Filed Dec. '7, 1966 [F I G 1 IN VENTOR. JACOB CHATKIS II I G. 2

ATTORNEY.

J. CHATKIS FOLDABLE GARMENT HANGER April 29, 1969 Sheet 2 012 Filed Dec. 7, 1966 INVENTOR. JACOB CHATKIS flaw ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,441,183 FOLDABLE GARMENT HANGER Jacob Chatkis, Leominster, Mass., assignor to Foster Grant Co., Inc., Leominster, Mass., a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 599,877 Int. Cl. A41d 2.7/22

US. Cl. 223-94 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Description This invention relates to a garment hanger, and more specifically, to a combination coat and trouser hanger or the like.

Many different constructions for garment hangers have been proposed in the past. Generally, these hangers have a portion designed for supporting a coat, sweater, or the like, and another portion or portions specifically designed for supporting a pair of trousers or the like.

It is an object of my invention to provide a garment hanger, suitable for supporting both a coat and trousers, which is capable of being compactly folded for storage in a suitcase or the like.

It is also an object of my invention to provide such garment hanger in which the trouser hanger members may be securely placed in a position to eliminate the possibility of catching or hooking on another garment, thus making possible the storage in a suitcase or the like with articles of delicate fabric, such as loosely-woven sweater.

It is another object of my invention to provide a garment hanger which is simple in construction and economical to manufacture.

Other important objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawings, wherein, for purposes of illustration only, a specific form of the invention is set forth in detail.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is an elevation view of the garment hanger showing the trouser hanger members in operative position.

FIGURE 2 is an elevation view of the garment hanger showing the trouser hanger members in inoperative position and the shoulder portions folded for storage.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of one of the trouser hanger members in operative position.

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of one of the trouser hanger members in inoperative position.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along lines 5--5 of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken along lines 6-6 of FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view of one of the trouser hanger members in inverted position, showing the construction thereof.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the garment hanger comprises a central portion 14, a pair of downwardly diverging shoulder portions 15 adapted to support a coat or similar article of wearing apparel thereon, and a hook 14A'by which the hanger may be suspended from any suitable support. The shoulder portions 15 are pivotally attached to central portion 14 by pivot pins 16 so that the garment hanger may be folded for storage in a suitcase or the like. Preferably the coat hanger is molded from plastic but it may be constructed from metal, wood or other suitable material.

Pivotally suspended from each shoulder portion 15 is a trouser hanger member 17 adapted to support a pair of trousers 20 by the cuffs 21 thereof. Each member 17 is supported by pivot pin 18 joining the sides 25, 26 thereof with shoulder portion 15. Upwardly extending support fingers 19 are provided which may be inserted into the ends of the cuffs of a pair of pants to be hung. The trousers are supported on member 17 by slipping each of the ends 21 over fingers 19 so that the trousers 20 hang downwardly by their cuffs 21.

In order to facilitate storage of the garment hanger for trips and the like, the members 17 are designed so that they may be quickly and easily moved into and frictionally held in'an inoperative position where there is virtually no chance of snagging sweaters and the like when the garment hanger is packed in a suitcase.

To this end, the members 17 are preferably fabricated out of a slightly resilient and flexible material such as aluminum. The members 17 may be stamped out of sheet material and subsequently bent to form. Alternatively, they may be molded from a resilient plastic material such as polystyrene, high impact polystyrene, nylon, polypropylene, etc.

The members 17 are designed so that they will straddle and frictionally engage the sides 23, 24 of shoulder portions 15 when moved to inoperative position. To accomplish this, the lower sides 23a, 24a of the shoulders 15 are beveled, or designed so as to diverge upwardly and merge with the sides 23 and 24 respectively. The upper portions of sides 23 and 24 are substantially parallel and spaced apart a distance slightly greater, e.g. about 0.001 to 0.05 inch, than the thickness of shoulder portion 15 in the area of the upper side portion 23 and 24. In order to provide for this free swinging and subsequent frictional engagement of the clips, the sides 25, 26 thereof converge slightly towards the lower ends 25a, 26a thereof so that most, if not all, .of the holding action is effected by the frictional engagement of the lower ends 25a, 26a of side portions 25, 26 with the upper sides 23 and 24 of shoulders 15. This construction provides guiding action and allows the members 17 to swing freely until they are almost completely in their inoperative position at which time the side portions 25 and 26 of members 17 frictionally engage upper shoulder sides 23 and 24.

The back portion 31 of member 17 extends part way up the sides 25, 26 and maintains the sides 25, 26 in their predetermined spaced relation. The top 32 provides a stop to prevent the members from swinging or being moved too far inwardly, and to insure that the members are moved in the right direction when being swung into inoperative position.

As is apparent from the drawings and the above specification, a combination coat and trouser hanger has been provided which is compact in storage and economically manufactured.

While exemplary embodiments have been set forth in detail, the foregoing description is considered exemplary rather than limiting; and the scope of the invention is to be determined from the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A garment hanger comprising:

(a) elongated downwardly divergent shoulder portions for supporting a coat or similar article of wearing apparel,

(b) means for suspending said shoulder portions,

(0) trouser hanger members pivotally attached at one of their ends to said shoulder portions and foldable into an operative position and an inoperative position, each of said trouser hanger members having:

a back portion,

spaced resilient side portions extending from said back portion opposed finger portions connected at one of their ends to said side portions and extending therealong in spaced relationship, said opposed finger portions terminating in free ends,

((1) said shoulder portions being slightly greater in thickness than the normal spacing of said resilient side portions, and the portion of the bottom edge thereof being beveled to act as a guide for said side portions,

(c) said trouser hanger members having the spaced resilient side portions straddling and frictionally engaging the shoulder portions in generally horizontal inoperative positions and said trouser hanger members having the spaced resilient side portions vertically disposed in operative positions to support trouser cults by the free ends of said opposed finger portions. 2. A garment hanger according to claim 1 in which the side portions of said trouser hanger portions converge slightly toward the ends opposite the portion pivotally connected to said shoulder portions, whereby substantially all the holding action is effected by the frictional engagement of said ends with the sides of said shoulder portions. 3. A garment hanger as described in claim 1, including a central portion and means foldably securing said shoulder portions to said central portion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 554,643 2/1896 Behrend 22390 2,633,276 3/1953 Gillespie et al 223-90 3,086,687 4/1963 Glowka 22391 3,207,393 9/1965 Pannick 223-96 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner. GEORGE H. KRIZMANICH, Assistant Examiner. 

